


define 'attachment'

by gigglesandfreckles



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Master & Padawan Relationship(s), lineage feels, post-brain invaders
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 02:47:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26608474
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gigglesandfreckles/pseuds/gigglesandfreckles
Summary: while the dads--sorry, I mean esteemed Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker--wait for Ahsoka to wake up, they talk about attachment, worry, and that time Ani caused an accidental security breech at the Temple.
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker
Comments: 9
Kudos: 225





	define 'attachment'

**Author's Note:**

> remember when Ahsoka has her capital-T Trauma with the geonosian brain invaders but everything is okay because Master Skywalker is there when she wakes up, ready to reassure her and tuck! her! back! in! ?
> 
> well this happens before that, as Ahsoka sleeps off...uhh whatever fancy medical space-y things Kix does that...induces extended unconsciousness? (i'm a history teacher, not a doctor)

“Pacing circles is not going to wake her any sooner,” mused Obi-Wan, quietly closing the door behind him.

He continued walking up and down the length of the bed, as if he did not hear Obi-Wan at all.

“Anakin.”

His head snapped up. “What?”

Obi-Wan offered a small, knowing smile. “You’re worrying too much. As usual.”

“I’m not worrying.” he said quickly, defensively, his shoulders wrought with tension.

“Sit,” instructed Obi-Wan, motioning to the small chairs in the corner.

Anakin sighed in frustration, but obeyed none-the-less.

“You should get some sleep,” suggested Obi-Wan, studying his former Padawan as he dropped into the seat across from him. “She’ll still be here when you wake up.”

Anakin snorted derisively. “I know that _you of all people_ didn’t just try and tell me to get some sleep.” He shook his head incredulously. “Do you even _do that_ anymore, old man?”

Obi-Wan narrowed his eyes. “I sleep.”

“Going to your room and working on mission reports all night long doesn’t count.”

Obi-Wan waved him off, ignoring the dangling bait for yet another argument about how, truly, _neither_ of them got the rest they needed anymore.

“She looks dead,” Anakin said simply. It had never stopped being jarring to Obi-Wan how straightforward Anakin could be without noticing his own lack of social prowess. Ever since he was a boy, Anakin had a particular way of saying the blunt things with no regard for the intake from others.

“Well, thanks to you, she isn’t,” Obi-Wan pointed out evenly.

Anakin frowned. “I didn’t do anything.”

“You told her how to beat them. She only knew about rupturing the coolant system because of you.”

Talking with Anakin was so often like this, these days. Obi-Wan would speak, but it was more like coaxing Anakin to say the things that Obi-Wan had already said. 

If he were being honest with himself, he _should_ have been asking Anakin exactly _how_ he had managed to get the information about the coolant system from Poggle the Lesser. He and Luminara had spent hours with the Geonosian, but he’d never uttered a helpful word. Then, Anakin walked in and came out of the room ten minutes later with valuable intel.

But if he were being even _more_ honest with himself, there was a reason Obi-Wan avoided this question.

“I should have been there,” said Anakin through gritted teeth.

“You had no way of foreseeing the situation. It should have been a run-of-the-mill supply run. Your Padawan is _more_ than capable of handling that.” Obi-Wan glanced over at the small bed holding Ahsoka’s unconscious body in it, his lips twitching to a small smile.

He hadn’t had a chance to spend any significant time with the girl, but he had already made up his mind to change that as soon as they all got back to the Temple. She had something burning and illuminating about her.

Obi-Wan had plenty of experience handling volatile objects, but if Anakin was fire itself, Ahsoka was a sun. She had that same intensity and kinetic danger as her Master, but Obi-Wan saw a deep desire in her to use it for the good of the galaxy around her, to help grow and guide it.

“I couldn’t do anything,” Anakin said, helplessly, watching his clasped hands in his lap. 

“I know it’s not what you want to hear,” began Obi-Wan gently, “but as your Padawan grows, you’re going to be able to do less and less.” He withheld the sad smile that played at his mouth, unwilling to make this moment about him. “You must teach her as much as you can _while_ you can. Ahsoka was prepared for this trial because of the lessons you have already instilled in her.”

Anakin pulled the glove off his artificial arm and began fiddling with the metal at his thumb, as he so often did. Obi-Wan looked away, pushing away the forced reminder of the time _he_ had learned how powerless he truly was to protect his own Padawan.

“I want her to be safe,” said Anakin quietly.

“I know.”

Anakin looked at Obi-Wan. “How did you deal with me for _ten years?_ ”

Obi-Wan chuckled. “It’s amusing that you think it ends when the Padawan gets Knighted.”

Anakin offered an appreciative smile and returned to fiddling with his hand. “I’m not like you, Master. You know me...I’m not good at the...attachment thing.”

Obi-Wan bit his tongue from snarking back about the real issue concerning Anakin being _too good_ at the ‘attachment thing.’

How many times had the Council requested Obi-Wan specifically talk to Anakin about his disregard for the Code when it came to attachment? And how many times had Obi-Wan balked, wondering if it was actually Anakin’s greatest weakness or greatest strength?

Of course Mace Windu and Yoda could ask Obi-Wan to have those conversations with his Padawan; _they’d_ never experienced the euphoria of Anakin Skywalker choosing _them_ over a tight principle or expectation.

Raising Anakin had made Obi-Wan doubt his _own_ competency with the Code’s edict on attachment.

“You’re not expected to abandon your Padawan or cease caring,” Obi-Wan fell back on the words he had told Anakin so many times already in the few months since Ahsoka had joined their lineage. “You have to find the balance in between it all.”

“You make it sound easy.”

Obi-Wan heard the tinge of resentment in his former Padawan’s tone and tried to ignore the way it made his stomach twist. He wasn’t exactly sure when his existence had started to irritate Anakin, but he’d sensed the tension growing in small doses between them since the beginning of the Clone Wars.

“Then you misunderstand me, my friend,” Obi-Wan shook his head in an attempt to make Anakin see that he struggled, too. “It is incredibly difficult. But the freedom of your emotions being disconnected from your personal relationships is a rewarding one.”

Or so Obi-Wan had been told.

“But how can you have personal relationships without emotions?” Anakin was growing frustrated, rounding back on this same argument they had had so many times before. Obi-Wan became more tired every time.

“Not _without_ emotions,” Obi-Wan corrected for the hundredth time. “You are simply responsible for being mindful of them.”

“Well, that’s stupid,” Anakin snapped, slumping in his seat. 

Obi-Wan took a deep breath, resisting the urge to chastise Anakin’s blatant disrespect for the Jedi Code. He had to choose his battles these days and this wasn’t one he wanted to engage in. Not when there were two unconscious Padawans in the same room.

“Our next orders came in,” said Obi-Wan, trying out a new thread of discussion.

“Oh. Is that what you came in here to tell me?” asked Anakin, looking apologetic. “Sorry I burdened you w--”

“Never a burden, Anakin,” Obi-Wan held up a hand to stop his former Padawan’s ramble, offering an earnest smile. “I came in here to check on you.”

“If you have things to do, you should go do them. I’m fine.”

“Someone can be _fine_ and still enjoy company, yes?”

“Yes,” Anakin nodded gratefully. “Thank you.”

“You know,” Obi-Wan began, settling deeper into his chair, “ _your_ first solo mission wasn’t exactly a walk in the park, either.”

“Nope, no way,” Anakin shook his head fervently, smiling none-the-less, “this is not an invitation for storytime.”

Obi-Wan grinned, unclipping his lightsaber from where it was poking him in the side and laying it on his lap. He was just getting _started_ ; may as well be comfortable. “Ah, my former Padawan, how much you still have to learn. I don’t need an _invitation_ to humiliate you.”

“Don’t I know it,” grumbled Anakin, rolling his eyes.

“Let’s see,” the older Jedi sighed wistfully. “It was slightly cloudy, no... _very_ cloudy--”

“ _Obi-Wan_.”

“--and this young sprite of a Jedi came _bustling_ into my room telling me he had received his first solo mission.” Obi-Wan sighed dramatically. “Now, imagine _my surprise_ at this news considering I was the boy’s Master, yet had received absolutely _zero communication_ about this.”

“It was a misunderstanding,” groaned Anakin.

“Hmm, so was the misunderstanding with the forged paper signed by _Grand Master of the Jedi Order, Yoda_...or the Padawan delivering it to me?”

“I wish I was the one unconscious right now instead of Snips.”

“Because you wish Ahsoka to hear this story? Oh, no worries, Anakin. I have _every_ intention of telling her this later.”

Anakin shot his former Master a rude hand gesture.

“The paper said that Anakin Skywalker was to report to hangar seven at ten hundred, misspelled by the way...that was my favourite part,” Obi-Wan smirked.

“ _I had just started learning how to read Basic!_ ”

“Anakin Skywalker was to report to hangar seven at ten hundred to embark on an off-world mission with no company other than the astromech known as R2-D2,” quoted Obi-Wan. “So, of course, I rolled out of bed and packed your bag for you because who was I to disobey such legitimate orders from the Council?”

“You were cruel.”

Obi-Wan shrugged. “I was bored.” he corrected. “Now this part of the story always trips me up. Was it you or your droid that set off the hangar alarms?”

“Neither. It was _you_ when--”

“No,” Obi-Wan shook his head. “I only checked the flight reports and saw that there were no departures scheduled for hangar seven. Since you had orders _directly from Master Yoda,_ I knew that it must be the flight reports that were wrong, so I simply did a manual override--”

“Yeah, _setting off the alarms_.”

“Oops,” Obi-Wan smiled, closing his eyes as he put his arms behind his head and reclined back.

“I don’t know how you have everyone except for me convinced that you’re some sort of Jedi golden boy. You’re a menace.”

“Master Kenobi?” a new voice interrupted the two men’s vocal spar.

Anakin and Obi-Wan stood up, quickly, bowing their heads toward Luminara.

“Obi-Wan,” Luminara nodded respectfully, “I was wondering if I might speak with you for a moment?”

“Of course,” Obi-Wan re-clipped his saber, following her out the door. He sent a last glance over his shoulder toward Anakin.

“I’m fine,” chuckled Anakin, motioning for his former Master to continue to the hall. “Kix said she should wake up in a few hours. I’ll be here.”

Obi-Wan quirked an eyebrow.

“ _Sitting down. Not worrying_ ,” he continued.

Obi-Wan smiled, closing the door behind him.

…

After Luminara had gone over the plans from the bridge to jettison and caught him up on Master Fisto’s inventory, he made his way back to the medical room holding Ahsoka and Barris. He gently pushed open the door, hoping to catch Anakin pacing again and preparing to poke fun at him for his worried antics over the Padawan he didn’t even want a couple of months ago.

Instead, Obi-Wan paused in the doorway, finding that, _for once in his kriffing life_ , Anakin had followed not one, but _two_ of Obi-Wan’s orders. He was seated in the chair as promised and _asleep._

Of course, it wouldn’t be Anakin Skywalker without a liberal interpretation of orders and Obi-Wan couldn’t do anything but smile at the fact that Anakin had physically dragged his chair across the room to set it directly next to Ahsoka’s bed.

He appeared to have made an effort at maintaining sentry duty, but had ultimately been defeated, his body slumped forward onto the bed in front of him. One of his arms lay across Ahsoka’s waist and his head was completely buried into the bedding. Whether or not she had been conscious of it, one of Ahsoka’s hands rested on Anakin’s head, her tiny fingers woven into his curls.

Obi-Wan stood in the doorway for another moment, trying his best to commit the details of this picture to his memory, before he slipped back into the hall, a content smile on his face.

**Author's Note:**

> yes, I will absolutely be writing about baby Ani's shenanigan in hangar seven at some point.
> 
> thanks for reading! xoxo
> 
> tumblr: giggles-and-freckles


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